1974’s “Chinatown”, directed by Roman Polanski.
Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry
Lopez, John Hillerman, and Roman Polanski.
Winner of an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
(Robert Towne).
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor
(Nicholson), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Director (Polanski), Best Cinematography
(John A. Alonzo), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Richard Sylbert, W.
Stewart Campbell, Ruby R. Levitt), Best Costumes (Anthea Sylbert), Best Sound
(Charles Grenzbach, Larry Jost), Best Editing (Sam O’Steen), and Best Original
Score (Jerry Goldsmith).
“Cadillac Desert” by Marc Reisner, described the ambitious
work overtaken by the US core of engineers to dramatically reshape the flow of fresh
waters to the more arid areas of the Western United States. Often, land rights
and resource allocation logistics involved the use of chicanery by corrupt
officials, inspired by wealthy individuals contributing to their bank balances.
“Chinatown”, is a fictionalized movie operating from this premise. Based in
1937 Los Angeles, we meet degenerate private eye Nicholson, who runs an
investigation firm. With his former job as an district attorney in the
Chinatown district, he knows the ins and outs of the justice system. He’s
initially hired by a woman to follow a waterworks official against the damming
of the region- who quickly turns up dead. This is just the beginning of a labyrinthian
plot that keeps us spinning until things come to a brutal halt.
Director Polanski, who has had one of the more traumatizing
lives that I know of, fought for the film’s sombre ending against Paramount’s
ego maniac and sexual weirdo head producer, Robert Evans, and thankfully won. It’s
perfect, like all of the other elements in this film. Nicholson’s role is
masterful here, playing a cynical detective who believes in the worst of people-
but who wants to physically fight people who suggest he’s a scam artist. His
detective is smooth and purposeful, but working in shades of subtlety that
would almost completely disappear by his third acting Oscar two and a half
decades later. Equally great is Dunaway, who continually reveals more to the
character that deepens it’s depth while always leaving yet more questions to be
answered. Finally, Huston is devastating here, as a powerful magnate who’s
greed and deception is matched only by his perversions and creepiness.
This is an intoxicating neo noir mystery, perfectly written
by Robert Towne- while what we originally thought about some of the characters
changes, it just keeps burrowing deeper and deeper. It’s best not to reveal the
plot, so that one can enjoy the ride it takes you on. At 2:11 hours long, it
seems to have no end in sight, with the impeccable script spinning in circles,
until the credits roll too soon. It’s been said that Towne based some of
Chinatown’s ideas on vice cops’ experiences who worked in LA’s Chinatown. Due
to the influence of a variety of non English dialects and gangs, it was unclear
to police if their presence helped, or further exploited the people living
there. As Nicholson says, when working there he did as, “little as possible”.
It’s difficult to change things when your salary depends on you not changing
them. As we see in the dust bowl of Southern California, we all swim in the
same water that’s owned by the privileged few.
5/5
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